"In the space of a decade, China and India have emerged as dramatic, dynamic competitors"
About this Quote
“Competitors” is the fulcrum word. Mandelson doesn’t say partners, markets, or even rivals. Competitors implies a rules-based arena in which the West can still win if it adapts: invest, reform, stay “competitive.” It’s a political cue aimed at domestic audiences who might otherwise hear “China and India” as either distant development stories or looming threats. Mandelson offers a third framing: challenge-as-motivation, anxiety repackaged as managerial urgency.
Context matters. As a New Labour-era figure tied to trade policy and globalization’s promises, Mandelson is speaking from the worldview that openness is inevitable, but outcomes are negotiable. The subtext is not admiration for Beijing and Delhi so much as a warning to London and Brussels: stop treating growth in Asia as a temporary cycle and start treating it as a structural shift. The sentence also performs a rhetorical balancing act: it acknowledges the new centers of gravity without conceding decline, inviting a recalibration rather than a retreat.
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| Topic | Business |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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APA Style (7th ed.)
Mandelson, Peter. (2026, January 15). In the space of a decade, China and India have emerged as dramatic, dynamic competitors. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/in-the-space-of-a-decade-china-and-india-have-160736/
Chicago Style
Mandelson, Peter. "In the space of a decade, China and India have emerged as dramatic, dynamic competitors." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/in-the-space-of-a-decade-china-and-india-have-160736/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"In the space of a decade, China and India have emerged as dramatic, dynamic competitors." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/in-the-space-of-a-decade-china-and-india-have-160736/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.
